Note: I did not write this. I don't have a link to the author at this time.




Breaking news. The environmental groups are trying to sue the wildlife officials for not doing their part in restoring their habitat, but there is one problem with that. The Caribou habitat never left, and for the little logging that was taken place, that has been shut down for years, along with the roads, and along with snowmobiling. This is the info the wildlife biologists have to say. Through the small amount of logging before it was shut down, they assume that it was the brush that was growing in clear cuts that brought in high numbers of deer, elk, and moose, and along with that, came the predators. They assume that is what brought in the predators, but what they do know, that there is more predation now (mt lions and wolves) then in previous years when the Caribou were better off. Now on the Canada side, they were taken down 180 wolves each year to protect the Selkirk caribou, but on our side of the border in Idaho, we were protecting the very predators that were killing them off, and it was the “environmental” groups that were keeping the wolves protected. 2011 is when we were finally allowed to hunt our wolves, but by then, it was too late. The newborn calves only had a 12% chance of survival, and when you only had 15 left, there is no chance for their herd to survive. Early this year, there was 2 left, and before wildlife officials were able to get to them, a mountain lion killed 1 of them. It is hard to watch as a local to see the problems plain as day, and these environmental groups come out of nowhere to try to make chances they know so little about. Please share this. The public needs to know.

The bit of reading I've done about these Caribou all the "articles" tried to downplay the wolf involvement in their reduction and play up the "loss of habitat" angle.
Has been pretty easy to see that wolves play and have played a major role in their decimation, really a shame.

how come the numbers struggled for decades before wolves came on to the scene?

I'm not saying they were abundant by any stretch but to ignore the obvious depredation by wolves and focus on the "loss of habitat" angle only is ridiculous.
That type of reporting is agenda biased writing and every article about these Caribou is full of it.
One article I read said "hunting and logging has caused their demise" yet they didn't back up any of their opinions with anything factual. This is typical agenda driven writing and you know as well as I do that is inaccurate and misleading. When was the last hunting license issued for Selkirk Caribou? 1970's?
The infestation of wolves have merely hastened the destruction of a population that was already in distress.
Thanks wolf lovers you have now pushed them over the edge.

They were never a big population in the first place.

Caribou everywhere are in trouble. AK has a couple of stable herds but most are in decline.